Research Article The Impact of an Implementation Project on Primary Care Staff Perceptions of Delivering Brief Alcohol Advice Hanna Reinholdz, 1 Preben Bendtsen, 2 Fredrik Spak, 1 and Ulrika Müssener 3 1 Unit of Social Medicine, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden 2 Department of Medical Specialist and Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Link¨ oping University, 581 83 Motala, Sweden 3 Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Link¨ oping University, 581 83 Link¨ oping, Sweden Correspondence should be addressed to Ulrika M¨ ussener; ulrika.mussener@liu.se Received 18 April 2016; Revised 2 June 2016; Accepted 5 June 2016 Academic Editor: Gallus Bischof Copyright © 2016 Hanna Reinholdz et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. To explore how the perceptions and experiences of working with risky drinkers change over time among primary health care staf during a systematic implementation project. Methods. Qualitative focus group interviews took place before and afer the implementation of the project. Results. Te staf displayed a positive change during the implementation period with regard to awareness, knowledge, and confdence that led to a change in routine practice. Troughout the project, staf were committed to engaging with risky drinkers and appeared to have been learning-by-doing. Conclusions. Te results indicated a positive attitude to alcohol prevention work but staf lack knowledge and confdence in the area. Te more practical experience during the study is, the more confdence seems to have been gained. Tis adds new knowledge to the science of implementation studies concerning alcohol prevention measures, which have otherwise shown disappointing results, emphasizing the importance of learning in practice. 1. Introduction Although the efcacy and efectiveness, as well as the cost- efectiveness, of screening and brief alcohol interventions (SBI) have been shown to be strong, the implementation of SBI into routine care practice has not been satisfactory; it seems to be difcult to motivate health care professionals to deliver SBI [1–6]. Many implementation projects have tried to overcome known barriers such as lack of time, resources, training, and negative attitudes to working with SBI with limited success [4, 5, 7–9]. In a survey in the United King- dom comparing role security and therapeutic commitment between 1999 and 2009 among general practitioners (GPs), it was seen that the main issue was lack of therapeutic commitment [6]. Te study also highlighted that lack of time and resources rather than negative attitudes was related to the lack of therapeutic commitment to SBI. Implementation of new methods has repeatedly been shown to need more than simple training sessions to be efective [4, 10]. Implementa- tion research suggests that a multifaceted strategy addressing several barriers may be more efective than simple training sessions. In addition, implementation eforts involving more professionals than GPs can improve how professionals work together towards increased SBI activities [4, 10, 11]. In a recent study from fve European countries involving 120 primary care units, no evidence that SBI rates were infuenced by role security or therapeutic commitment was found [12]. Other factors, not specifcally studied, such as clinical priorities and management support might be more important for implementation. Tis study underlines a review by Nilsen et al. [13], which concluded that motivation to engage in SBI should be viewed as a dynamic process encompassing the characteristics of the individual health professional, the patients, the clinical setting, and the wider context. Tus, there is a knowledge gap on how to engage primary care staf in brief alcohol advice. How do we overcome the perceived lack of knowledge and reluctance to ask patients about their alcohol habits? Tentative answers might be found by giving ofce-based support material and management support rather than trying to change already positive attitudes among staf [4, 10]. How staf’s performance changes over Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Addiction Volume 2016, Article ID 4731571, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4731571